No buts about colonic irrigation

Why didn't they teach me this treatment at The Harvard Medical School? It could have saved my patients and I a lot of headaches. A simple procedure that helps every disease in the book. But can colonic irrigation accomplish all these things? And is there a dangerous downside?

Several readers have seen Web sites advocating this practice and wonder about its benefits. So I clicked onto the Internet to see what's offered. And there's plenty to entice the unsuspecting medical consumer.

Ads selling colonic kits claim that Marilyn Monroe and Princess Di spent thousands a year purging their bowels. It's puzzling why these troubled celebrities would be chosen as examples of the beneficial effects of colonic irrigation. This alone should make any intelligent person run for the woods.

This universal fear of "autointoxication" and the desire for a good clean-out has made laxative companies rich. And it has ruined untold numbers of normal colons.

Colonic irrigation is not like a standard enema. Rather, it involves the insertion of a tube into the rectum and a long way into the large bowel. Then large quantities of water, either continuously or by giving successive irrigation, are pumped in.

The water contains a variety of additives. The usual ones include soap suds, coffee, coffee grounds and herbs. But it can also include a whole list of potentially irritating substances.

Several of the Web sites I investigated, and the claims they made, reminded me of the old snake oil salesman of the past.

A typical site asks, "Do you look and feel older than you are? Do you know that a colonic high irrigation improves skin and muscle tone and decreases aging. And that it can ease sinusitis, poor eyesight and poor memory." The list goes on and on.

Another claims it will ease the discomfort of weak, stiff and painful joints. That it will eliminate moodiness and fatigue and you will enjoy increased energy. And if your waistline is getting bigger, a single purging will remove two to four pounds.

If this doesn't open your pockekbook, then other claims will, that without purging some food may stay in the colon for months or years putrefying and then poisoning your body. And that this may result in cancer of the colon.

An old saying warned that "When sometimes seems too good to be true, that's usually the case." And there's no medical evidence that colonic purging cures anything or is even a sound practice.

Rather, pumping anywhere from a few pints to a few gallons of fluid into the bowel can be dangerous. Nausea and diarrhea may occur. Illness and death can result from blood poisoning, known as septicemia, due to contaminated equipment. And it can destroy normal bowel function.

Death can also occur from disturbances in the fluid balance of the body. There are also instances where the bowel has been perforated, a very serious complication.

Why do people subject themselves to this procedure? Some believe themselves "tainted" or "soiled" in some way. Or as The National Council Against Health Fraud says, "Colonics is a kind of Dr. Feelgood quackery, a procedure that elicits a feeling in a patient which is interpreted as beneficial."

In my office, I see damaging bowel habits every day. Patients who, on examination, have hard rock-like stools in the lower bowel.

These patients don't require colonic irrigation. Rather, they need to drink more water and increase the amount of fibre in their diet. Fibre holds onto water, making bowel movements bulky and soft as toothpaste.